SEOUL, (AFP) - North Korea said it was abandoning the truce that ended the Korean war and warned it could launch a military attack, deepening tensions two days after testing an atomic bomb for the second time.

The strongly worded announcement came amid reports the secretive North, which outraged the international community with its bomb test Monday, was also restarting nuclear fuel work that could make plutonium for an atomic weapon.

Defying international condemnation, the regime of Kim Jong-Il said it could no longer guarantee the safety of US and South Korean ships off its west coast and that the Korean peninsula was veering back to a state of war.

“Those who have provoked us will face unimaginable merciless punishment,” the statement on the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, blaming Washington and Seoul for the latest turn of events.